AT A TEMPORARY SHRINE in a Newtown house, Bith Thang Kham, right, of Danbury and Youta Khy of Waterbury worship. Four Cambodian Buddhist monks living there meditate twice a day and serve the spiritual needs of about 400 Cambodians who live in Connecticut. The town has rejected plans for a permanent temple. (Photo: PATRICK RAYCRAFT)
ONE OF THE MONKS, Heng Hok Sim, 78, is apprehensive as he peeks out the window of the residence at an approaching visitor. The monks say they are on edge after town and neighbors’ opposition to the Buddhists’ proposal to build a permanent temple on their 10 acres. (Photo: PATRICK RAYCRAFT)
"WE WOULD LIKE to live in peace with the people,” says Pong Me, 63, of Bristol, president of the Cambodian Buddhist Society of Connecticut Inc. Newtown residents have said the temple plan would generate too much traffic and septic usage and would destroy their quality of life. Others say the society has used “scurrilous” methods. (Photo: PATRICK RAYCRAFT) March 11, 2007
By ELIZABETH HAMILTON, Courant Staff Writer
Hartford Courant (Hartford, Connecticut, USA)
Hiang Uaen and Richard Coburn came to Boggs Hill Road for pretty much the same reasons: the tranquility, the woods and ponds, the sound of birds in the trees. But that is where their neighborly compatibility ends.
Uaen is one of four Buddhist monks who moved into the renovated barn in Newtown shortly after the Cambodian Buddhist Society purchased the property nearly a decade ago.
Coburn is president of the Newtown Residential Preservation Society and a 37-year resident of Boggs Hill who can still remember when it was safe to take your children on a horse-drawn wagon ride up the winding country road.
Since 2002, when the Buddhist society applied for a special exception from zoning rules to build a 7,600-square-foot temple on its 10 acres, Uaen and Coburn have been on opposite sides of an increasingly bitter battle. It has played out largely in hearing chambers and courtrooms as a zoning dispute that has made it all the way to the state Supreme Court.
But it also played out more quietly as a clash between two cultures and dueling accusations. Neighbors say the society held rowdy outdoor festivals for hundreds of people on the property before the town issued a cease-and-desist order, and they complain that the temple plans have been both vague and fluid since they were filed.
More serious are the accusations of religious intolerance and petty vandalism leveled by the Cambodian Buddhists against residents of a classic New England community that is more commonly identified by the 110-foot flagpole in the middle of Main Street and tidy rows of antique homes that line the town center.
Coburn called the accusation ridiculous. Residents, he said, are opposed to the project because they believe the temple would generate too much traffic and septic usage for a rural neighborhood that is zoned for residential use.
"We're not bigots. We just want to be decent, law-abiding citizens and we expect others to be, too," Coburn said last week, adding that several residents have offered to help the society find a more suitable property in Newtown for its temple.
Evening Prayers
At the society's home on Boggs Hill Road last week, Uaen, the head monk, and three other monks gathered in their saffron-colored robes for evening prayers and meditation in front of a low altar. A large gold statue of Buddha and at least a dozen smaller statues sit in front of a section of wall painted to depict the tree and surrounding forest in India where Buddha Shakyamuni was enlightened in 649 B.C.
The room was intensely still, the only sounds coming from a clock and the wind rattling tree branches outside. Four of the society's elders kneeled on mats behind the monks, while Pinith Mar, who, at 38 is one of the younger generation in the Cambodian Buddhist Society and is still becoming comfortable with the practices of Buddhism, looked on.
The teachings of Buddha 2,500 years ago are practiced by these four monks and, as a result, when they sit down later to talk about the conflict over the temple, not one of them will say anything critical of their neighbors.
"We're here for peace only," said Uaen through a translator.
Other members of the society, however, said there has been hostility against the project from the beginning - hostility that culminated in February 2003 with the planning and zoning commission's unanimous denial of their application.
Society members complain that there have been numerous acts of vandalism against the property. The mailbox has been knocked over repeatedly, they said, and once someone arranged empty beer bottles in a circle around it.
People on motorcycles ride up the driveway and rev their engines as they race around the property, they add. There has even been verbal harassment.
"An older member who went outside the house, they got yelled at, `Go back to your own country!'" Mar said.
Neither Newtown Police Chief Michael Kehoe nor First Selectman Herbert Rosenthal were aware of the harassment described by the Buddhists. Police records show only a smattering of complaints from the Buddhist society, said Kehoe, including one about a felled mailbox.
"Those could be isolated incidents," Rosenthal said. "But we're a town of 28,000 people and I'm sure we have our share of individuals who harbor those views."
Out Of Time
Mar and others said the dispute has exacted a heavy toll on the society's members. They believe that time is running out for the elders to pass along the practices of Buddhism to the younger generation and ready themselves for death.
Mar, who escaped from a Cambodian refugee camp when he was 13, said all the adult members of the society were victims of the Khmer Rouge, the communist party that ruled Cambodia in the late 1970s. Because Khmer leader Pol Pot and his followers executed monks along with intellectuals and professionals, the culture and religion of Cambodian Buddhism exists solely in the memories of those who survived.
"My father passed away two years ago without seeing the temple," Mar said. "It's very hard for me to look at these elders and know they are facing a loss of everything."
There is a practical issue at hand. Buddhism is made up of what are known as the Three Jewels: the Buddha; the Dharma, the teachings of the Buddha; and the Sangha, which includes the monks, the temple and worship. If one of these things is missing, you can't truly practice Buddhism.
When the Cambodian Buddhists found their 10-acre site in Newtown, Mar said, they were elated because it contained the elements necessary for the creation of a temple - a pond, enough elevation for the temple to look out toward the east, trees, space for a garden, and tranquility.
That last quality is precisely what neighbors fear would be destroyed if the temple was ever built.
Neighbors don't buy the argument that the site on Boggs Hill Road is the only place the Buddhists can build their temple.
"People can go elsewhere and still have the elderly inspire the youth," Coburn said.
But Mar said the society already has spent a considerable amount of time and money on the current property and is afraid the same problems would crop up elsewhere if they started over again.
Local Zoning
During the two public hearings before the planning and zoning commission in October and December of 2002, neighbor after neighbor stood up and voiced opposition to the plans.
Among the reasons cited were the usual concerns about traffic, the water supply and septic waste disposal that any significant project can generate. But according to transcripts of the hearings, neighbors also spoke at length about how the temple would destroy their quality of life.
One woman even said her stress about the proposed temple pushed her into a serious illness.
Many of them also said didn't believe society members' claims that there are only four or five major festival days a year - a mistrust born, they said, from the outdoor festivals that marked the society's early tenure on the property.
"We can only judge from their past actions that they will do whatever they can that they can get away with and we're concerned about that," said Robert Cox, a Boggs Hill Road resident.
Other residents were even more pointed in their criticism, accusing members of the Cambodian Buddhist Society and their agents of having little integrity.
"I don't feel that the Buddhists I have known would react in this way ... and would be so scurrilous in handling this type of matter, and so unforthcoming," said town resident Michael Stirk. "I feel they would have more integrity and I would expect that integrity, not only from a friend or a person, but I would certainly expect it from a religious institution."
Mar and other representatives of the society have acknowledged that the early festival days were an unfortunate way to begin their relationship with the neighbors, but say the crowds were prompted by excitement throughout the Cambodian Buddhist community about the property.
If built, this would be the first Cambodian Buddhist temple in Connecticut.
The society appealed the planning and zoning commission's denial in March 2003, citing religious freedom protected by federal and state law. Superior Court Judge Deborah Kochiss Frankel upheld the Newtown board's decision, however, prompting the society to appeal again. The case was heard by the state Supreme Court last week.
Rosenthal, the first selectman, said that while he and other town officials are sympathetic to the society's goals and the terrible ordeal they experienced during the Khmer Rouge era, they still have to do what is best for the town.
"As much sympathy as you can have for them, and I do, we still have to do what we think is appropriate," Rosenthal said. "It doesn't make it more appropriate because the people have a good reason to be there."
Contact Elizabeth Hamilton at ehamilton@courant.com.
Uaen is one of four Buddhist monks who moved into the renovated barn in Newtown shortly after the Cambodian Buddhist Society purchased the property nearly a decade ago.
Coburn is president of the Newtown Residential Preservation Society and a 37-year resident of Boggs Hill who can still remember when it was safe to take your children on a horse-drawn wagon ride up the winding country road.
Since 2002, when the Buddhist society applied for a special exception from zoning rules to build a 7,600-square-foot temple on its 10 acres, Uaen and Coburn have been on opposite sides of an increasingly bitter battle. It has played out largely in hearing chambers and courtrooms as a zoning dispute that has made it all the way to the state Supreme Court.
But it also played out more quietly as a clash between two cultures and dueling accusations. Neighbors say the society held rowdy outdoor festivals for hundreds of people on the property before the town issued a cease-and-desist order, and they complain that the temple plans have been both vague and fluid since they were filed.
More serious are the accusations of religious intolerance and petty vandalism leveled by the Cambodian Buddhists against residents of a classic New England community that is more commonly identified by the 110-foot flagpole in the middle of Main Street and tidy rows of antique homes that line the town center.
Coburn called the accusation ridiculous. Residents, he said, are opposed to the project because they believe the temple would generate too much traffic and septic usage for a rural neighborhood that is zoned for residential use.
"We're not bigots. We just want to be decent, law-abiding citizens and we expect others to be, too," Coburn said last week, adding that several residents have offered to help the society find a more suitable property in Newtown for its temple.
Evening Prayers
At the society's home on Boggs Hill Road last week, Uaen, the head monk, and three other monks gathered in their saffron-colored robes for evening prayers and meditation in front of a low altar. A large gold statue of Buddha and at least a dozen smaller statues sit in front of a section of wall painted to depict the tree and surrounding forest in India where Buddha Shakyamuni was enlightened in 649 B.C.
The room was intensely still, the only sounds coming from a clock and the wind rattling tree branches outside. Four of the society's elders kneeled on mats behind the monks, while Pinith Mar, who, at 38 is one of the younger generation in the Cambodian Buddhist Society and is still becoming comfortable with the practices of Buddhism, looked on.
The teachings of Buddha 2,500 years ago are practiced by these four monks and, as a result, when they sit down later to talk about the conflict over the temple, not one of them will say anything critical of their neighbors.
"We're here for peace only," said Uaen through a translator.
Other members of the society, however, said there has been hostility against the project from the beginning - hostility that culminated in February 2003 with the planning and zoning commission's unanimous denial of their application.
Society members complain that there have been numerous acts of vandalism against the property. The mailbox has been knocked over repeatedly, they said, and once someone arranged empty beer bottles in a circle around it.
People on motorcycles ride up the driveway and rev their engines as they race around the property, they add. There has even been verbal harassment.
"An older member who went outside the house, they got yelled at, `Go back to your own country!'" Mar said.
Neither Newtown Police Chief Michael Kehoe nor First Selectman Herbert Rosenthal were aware of the harassment described by the Buddhists. Police records show only a smattering of complaints from the Buddhist society, said Kehoe, including one about a felled mailbox.
"Those could be isolated incidents," Rosenthal said. "But we're a town of 28,000 people and I'm sure we have our share of individuals who harbor those views."
Out Of Time
Mar and others said the dispute has exacted a heavy toll on the society's members. They believe that time is running out for the elders to pass along the practices of Buddhism to the younger generation and ready themselves for death.
Mar, who escaped from a Cambodian refugee camp when he was 13, said all the adult members of the society were victims of the Khmer Rouge, the communist party that ruled Cambodia in the late 1970s. Because Khmer leader Pol Pot and his followers executed monks along with intellectuals and professionals, the culture and religion of Cambodian Buddhism exists solely in the memories of those who survived.
"My father passed away two years ago without seeing the temple," Mar said. "It's very hard for me to look at these elders and know they are facing a loss of everything."
There is a practical issue at hand. Buddhism is made up of what are known as the Three Jewels: the Buddha; the Dharma, the teachings of the Buddha; and the Sangha, which includes the monks, the temple and worship. If one of these things is missing, you can't truly practice Buddhism.
When the Cambodian Buddhists found their 10-acre site in Newtown, Mar said, they were elated because it contained the elements necessary for the creation of a temple - a pond, enough elevation for the temple to look out toward the east, trees, space for a garden, and tranquility.
That last quality is precisely what neighbors fear would be destroyed if the temple was ever built.
Neighbors don't buy the argument that the site on Boggs Hill Road is the only place the Buddhists can build their temple.
"People can go elsewhere and still have the elderly inspire the youth," Coburn said.
But Mar said the society already has spent a considerable amount of time and money on the current property and is afraid the same problems would crop up elsewhere if they started over again.
Local Zoning
During the two public hearings before the planning and zoning commission in October and December of 2002, neighbor after neighbor stood up and voiced opposition to the plans.
Among the reasons cited were the usual concerns about traffic, the water supply and septic waste disposal that any significant project can generate. But according to transcripts of the hearings, neighbors also spoke at length about how the temple would destroy their quality of life.
One woman even said her stress about the proposed temple pushed her into a serious illness.
Many of them also said didn't believe society members' claims that there are only four or five major festival days a year - a mistrust born, they said, from the outdoor festivals that marked the society's early tenure on the property.
"We can only judge from their past actions that they will do whatever they can that they can get away with and we're concerned about that," said Robert Cox, a Boggs Hill Road resident.
Other residents were even more pointed in their criticism, accusing members of the Cambodian Buddhist Society and their agents of having little integrity.
"I don't feel that the Buddhists I have known would react in this way ... and would be so scurrilous in handling this type of matter, and so unforthcoming," said town resident Michael Stirk. "I feel they would have more integrity and I would expect that integrity, not only from a friend or a person, but I would certainly expect it from a religious institution."
Mar and other representatives of the society have acknowledged that the early festival days were an unfortunate way to begin their relationship with the neighbors, but say the crowds were prompted by excitement throughout the Cambodian Buddhist community about the property.
If built, this would be the first Cambodian Buddhist temple in Connecticut.
The society appealed the planning and zoning commission's denial in March 2003, citing religious freedom protected by federal and state law. Superior Court Judge Deborah Kochiss Frankel upheld the Newtown board's decision, however, prompting the society to appeal again. The case was heard by the state Supreme Court last week.
Rosenthal, the first selectman, said that while he and other town officials are sympathetic to the society's goals and the terrible ordeal they experienced during the Khmer Rouge era, they still have to do what is best for the town.
"As much sympathy as you can have for them, and I do, we still have to do what we think is appropriate," Rosenthal said. "It doesn't make it more appropriate because the people have a good reason to be there."
Contact Elizabeth Hamilton at ehamilton@courant.com.
13 comments:
That is good that Cambodian Buddhist Temples in foreign countries are tremendously mushrooming. Temples are the identity and cultural center for all Cambodians.
However, building temple is facing many problems: internal dispute, no legality and weak in organizing.
However, Khmers are still striving to achieve it.
rESPECT THE LAW OF THE LAND.IF YOU LIKE YOUR CULTURE SO MUCH GO BACK TO WHERE YOU BELONG...
This is a dilemma for other Buddhists not necessarily just Cambodians to come out in force to help resolve dispute.
Broggs Hill Road must be fested by Ku Klux Klan attitude. It is not other state did not face the same prejudice but someone needs to educate Twon Council on matter.
By rights, Cambodians need to stand ground in accordance with laws.
May be it is the reason that Society needs to build an enclosed hall for activities.
5:23 AM, shut your ignorance pie hole. If what you say is true, most Americans should return to Europe. Native Americans, whose "Asian" descendants claim the land "first" should ask each and every Euro Americans to return home.
However, that is not possible, because America's greatness is DIVERSITY. The "zoning" law is NOT the law of the land, but a subjective law of a small New England town. The fact that they love their "Cambodian American culture" so much should be the main reason they should "stay" and battle the injustice...that is the "AMERICAN WAY". The Buddhist have the US federal law on their side, but town and state law may not favor them.
THE SECOND WRITER IS A WILD ANIMAL, KONWING NO HUMAN NATURE. EVERY LAND LAW IN THE WORLD NEVER DISCRIMINATE RELIGION; ONLY ANIMAL DOES.
THis is a very common problems wherever Khmers are living....
By living :" Tarm Sam-Yab Phteas Ke "....We have to adjust our lives even in Cambodia.Khmers became a second class citizen within their own country.
Muslims want to build their Mekkas, Khmer wants to build more Buddhist Temples, but none of these people ever said "Thank you" to the America Founding's Fathers who sacrificed their lives to free America from King George III of England.
There are too & too many Buddhist Temples and too many little boys becoming monks lazy playing around with cows. Why are they not in schools? We get to know the limits when we are too poor, and besides under this circumstance.
Buddhism in Cambodia must be REFORMED. To be a monk a person should finish at least High School, and monks should be allowed to continue higher education. They will do no good to the society if they are just chanting, going from door to door begging for only food. They get to be educated to help the society.
11:22 AM
There are broad debate of what you said but I am still optimistic that to be a monk in a young age in short term is good; or long term is good if temples can provide them adequate education.
To be a monk is to train our young generation to become good persons...this is huge human resource center in Cambodia.
Dear moi28,
You're so naive about Buddhism.You should learn more of it.
Why don't you say a lot stories are behind God & Churches : child abused,rapping and phedofiles .
It's nothing wrong with the religion ; but people used its as their insanity tool to rule & reign people.
Buddhism is a fast religion growing in US from 3 millions of asian immegrants to 30 million (?)
..now it enters to main stream American society...the number is growing.
They are chanting and going from door to door begging for only food;
but they do not knock door to door to annoy people to ask them to see
God.
US constitution states clearly in accordance to Natural Laws,each person has rights that endowed by the creators to pursue liberty (in Aquinas/Kant's),life and happiness (in Aristotle definition).
Buddhist or atheist is human and taxpayer,the bottom line. Taxation must have representation according to Boston tea party ideal.Someone nearby call local ACLU for the believers.
To the 1st "1:04PM", you said:
"[T]here are broad debate of what you said but I am still optimistic that to be a monk in a young age in short term is good; or long term is good if temples can provide them adequate education.
To be a monk is to train our young generation to become good persons...this is huge human resource center in Cambodia.".
I hope it will help those young boys with a better education. But what I have done my re-search and study about Khmer society, Khmers failed themselves again & again, after the fall of their empire, and they have contiued to fail until today. I disagree that those boys should be monks, they should be in schools. It is the parenst' duty to discipline the children not the Temples.
The minute they are free from Sihanouk and/or Pol Pot, they go back to live the same as they did in a primitive civilization.
They do not study to find out why did they fail or how are they going to do to shape up the Buddhism to be better than the past, etc..
The country is too weak and it is about to be wiped out, and the whole society is in disarray lacking of many educated people; everyone stay mum enjoying to build more temples;; some entered the monkhood to get away from hard working; while the majority of people are too poor.
Sadly the head monk Tep Vong today is one of the butcher. I just believe that Khmer people deserve better, and that the Buddhism should be reformed like I already indicated in my previous post.
To the 2nd "1:04PM", you said:
"Dear moi28,
You're so naive about Buddhism.You should learn more of it.
Why don't you say a lot stories are behind God & Churches : child abused,rapping and phedofiles .
It's nothing wrong with the religion ; but people used its as their insanity tool to rule & reign people. Buddhism is a fast religion growing in US from 3 millions of asian immegrants to 30 million (?) ..now it enters to main stream American society...the number is growing. They are chanting and going from door to door begging for only food; but they do not knock door to door to annoy people to ask them to see God."
My friend. Your argument is no use, it cannot help to save or to free Cambodia from Yuan.
My argument is clear that "The Buddhism in Cambodia MUST be Reformed".
Cambodia needs more educated, intelligence men/women to free her, not too many little boys to becoming monks going from door to door for food. These boys should be in SCHOOLS.Building too many Temples while the country is the poorest in the world and while her people are being sold to prostitutions every day.
The first enemy of Cambodia is Khmers and you are one of them.
I still stand my ground that Buddhism in Cambodia must be REFORMED to save the country from being wiped out from the world map.
To be a monk one must have at least High School. All monks must be educated.
Folks, this is the U. S. you are talking about. First, this is a deeply Christian, religious country. Second, this is a very hypocritical people, and third they are bigotted, which means their tolerance of other religions or beliefs are quite limited, whether its Islam or Buddhism. True Buddhism is not so much a religion as it is a philosophy of life. Anyway, the rural U. S. is the backbone of their Christian religion, and they are leery of everything foreign and strange as this might subvert their own beliefs. This is what they are really afraid of, and this is why they fight against it so much. And they will any legal, and sometimes illegal, means available to block those influences. Never mind, that these same people waged war in completely innocent Cambodia, displacing hundreds of thousand Khmer, of which about 150,000 came to live in the U. S. But they want you to convert to Christianity and forgo your ancestral beliefs. Now this is a fact in rural America. Go live in metropolitan areas where people are more world-savvy. California is still the best place for overseas Khmer, unless they want to return to their homeland, despite the current government. If many of those overseas Khmer returned, bringing new ideas and openness with them, the sooner this government will fall.
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